Articles by Kathleen McCrudden Illert

March 1, 2022

🦋 Democracy by any other name

Kathleen McCrudden Illert

Jean-Paul Gagnon has argued that the most promising way of approaching the total texture of democracy is through words. But, asks Kathleen McCrudden Illert, what’s in a name? Many theories that we would recognise today as democratic were not, due to their historical context, associated with the signifier ‘democracy’ – and these concepts will be missing from Gagnon’s data mountain.

Kathleen McCrudden Illert

Max Weber Fellow, European University Institute

Kathleen's research sits at the boundary of history and political theory.

She is particularly interested in how to recover and reconstruct the ideas of past thinkers who are typically excluded from the traditional political-philosophical canon, especially women.

Currently, Kathleen's research focuses on the period around the French Revolution, and the development of the discourses of republicanism, liberalism, and democracy.

Using alternative methodologies, including the idea of 'embodied thought', she is writing a book about the political thought and activities of Sophie de Grouchy (1763–1822), the wife of the marquis de Condorcet.

Kathleen received her PhD from Yale University, having gained an MPhil and BA from the University of Cambridge.

Her dissertation was awarded the Hans Gatzke Prize for an outstanding dissertation in the field of European History.

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